Hearing God's Voice

I don’t know about you, but I love to hear God speak to me. The quite whispers to my heart bring me such joy. For the longest time I thought those little whispers were just my own thoughts, but I’ve come to realize that this is the way God speaks to me. The sweetest thing to me is when God speaks the practical things to me in the morning as I rush out the door. Little things that I am forgetting. I get a strong impressing to go back and check something or to put something in my car that I wouldn’t have thought of on my own. I’ve ignored these little whispers and been sorely disappointed later in the day because I didn’t have something I needed. Only to realize that God had been prompting me to go back and get that item before I left the house! It’s these things that show me that God cares about me. Really cares about every aspect of my life…. even the little things.

I enjoyed chapter two, Hearing God’s Voice. Sometimes I know God is speaking to me, but many times I have to wonder if the thought or idea came from me. Most of the time I’m confused when these thoughts/idea are big or will take involving others to accomplish them. The five questions will be helpful to determine if God is giving me a command or direction or if it’s me coming up with an idea.

For some of the questions there was a quote that I just found so impactful.

1. Does what I’m hearing line up with scripture?

“God’s Word is the language the Holy Spirit uses to help us understand what God is speaking to our hearts. We must get into God’s Word and let God’s Word get into us.” (page 27)

Have you notice the same theme through our last few books? We must get into God’s word!

2. Is what I’m hearing consistent with God’s character?

“The fruit of the Spirit is the spontaneous work of the Holy Spirit in us. The Spirit produces these character traits that are found in the nature of Christ. They are by-products of Christ’s control-we can’t obtain them by trying to get them without his help.” (page 28-29)

 I’ve never thought of the fruits of the Spirit as a by-product before, but it makes sense! The more time I spend with Jesus the more I will act like Him.

3. Is what I’m hearing being confirmed through other messages?

This is the one that I find so cool and amazing. Whenever I am studying several Bible studies at the same time they seem to fall in step with each other. Messages on Sundays echo the things I’m learning in my quite time. Verses that I have mulled over pop up in Sunday school lessons or in the Pastor’s sermons. Even the Daily Bread messages go along with what I’m learning. Many times they all have the same theme. It’s incredible. I am totally blown away by it. In the past, I’ve not thought to consider that this is happening to confirm something that God is speaking to my heart, but I’ll be on the lookout for it now!

4. Is what I’m hearing beyond me?

5. Would what I’m hearing please God?

Now I’ll be honest, this last question irked me. At first, I didn’t feel like it helped to discern if an idea is from God or not. Basically she’s saying that whether the thought or idea is from God or not, we should go ahead if it would please God. I thought that’s works fine for the small stuff. Should I take this cake to the family who is struggling? No brainer. But what about the bigger things. I tried to think of something that He would tell me to do that  would not please Him, but and I couldn’t think of anything. So I guess it does work as the last question in the group.

At the end of the chapter Lysa states that she uses this five-question filter as a starting place in her conversations with God. She says,

“To this day I have to seek it (hearing God’s voice) by asking for the desire, discipline, discernment, direction and delight.” (page 38)

 On a note card I wrote out the rest of the paragraph as a prayer that I say each morning.

Lord,

Please give me the desire to want You more than anything else. Give me the discipline to make my relationship with You my top priority. Lord, give me the discernment to know the difference between my own thoughts and Yours. Please give me clear direction at each crossroad in my life. Help my relationship with You be sheer delight!

These five simple requests have affected my time with God in a big way. “Ask and ye shall receive!”